The Emergencies Ministry says that extreme summer weather is destroying grain, vegetable and fodder crops in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region, and is concerned that grain prices could double as a result. The BBC is running a video report on the current drought, which is thought to be Russia’s worst in over a century. ‘At this point, people don’t trust Russian drug makers,‘ but an industry revamp is going to require large investment and a reorganization of production priorities, says the Moscow Times. Mobile TeleSystems has paid $123.5 million for broadband and cable television provider Multiregion. The head of Sistema wants Russia to legally prohibit the import of devices that use GPS satellite technology as a boost to the development of the competing Glonass system, and effectively to ‘close the market for equipment that doesn’t have a Glonass chip‘.